Very windy on the hike in. Calmed after sunset. A lot of talus all the way from Red Lake to the summit. Well consolidated as far as Sierra talus goes, though. 9 hours round trip from Red Lake. Great day and nice summit.

Thanks to party members: Bob, Joe, Phil and Karen who shared the summit with me. On this 9-11 we acknowledged those who lost thier lives on 9-11-01 and we honored those who fight for the freedom we have to make our summit sojourns. It was beautiful on top, we could see for miles in all directions. Trip Info: Friday we drove to the trail head via the Tinemaha Campground route which took about one hour from 395. Saturday we hiked for over 5 hours from trailhead to Red Lake. Sunday 9-11 we left Red Lake at 6:00 a.m, summited a little after 11:00, started down at 12:00 noon, got back to Red Lake a little after 3:00 p.m., broke camp and made it back to the trail head around 9:00 p.m.

Starting at 3:00 am and fought fatigue as well as some surprisngly lush vegetation along the way. A beautiful hike. Note - take the Tinemaha route out if you want to spare your high clearance vehicle some major abuse.

Dayhiked with Courney and Susan. It was our first time up the Red Lake trail and we followed the first 4 miles by headlamp. The summit was socked in but nothing ever materialised. Next time I'm taking a mountail bike from the Tinemaha campgroud the the TH.

It was a beautiful day on a beautiful mountain; we went up the the St. Jean's Couloir which is also known as "cake walk couloir". If you have the ability to do the East Couloir and pass on it to do St. Jean's, you will undoubtably regret it and want to go back. Even though the 1.5 hr drive from H395 to the trailhead is good at keeping people away from this mountain, I shall return (hopefully). Still was a great climb and one of my most rewarding summits.

2nd trip to Split. Last one ended with helicopter rescue from high in St. Jean's Coulior and a fractured ankle (October 2003). This trip with Mike Corby and I alone. Ankle held up well in snow travel this time. Good snow and conditions for crampons in early mornings. Too soft and some post-holing after 12 noon. Snow shoes better after noon. Summit day was long: 4am to 8pm starting 1000' above Red Lake (10,500'). Strong gusty winds in am, sunny and warm by noon. Summited at 2 pm. Snow too soft and for good glissading. Great time of year for High Sierra's!!

Climbed via the st jean couloir, descended the north slope. Snow conditions in the couloir were variable including waist deep powder, which was like 'swimming uphill', luckily loopperu broke trail the entire way. dom almost took a slide to his doom on the descent, but he's still with us. PICS

Climbed with Andre and Marta. High camp at Red Lake. Heard the calls and rock fall from 2 climbers descending the St Jean couloir into the late evening. They made it down. Climb up the talus and scree the next morning. Some snow above 13,000. Foggy on top so we missed the Sierra vistas. 20 minutes after beginning the descent it cleared. Timing is everything.

Split/Prater dayhike out of the Red Lake TH. This was to be a much more ambitious excursion, tagging Bolton Brown and Tinemaha as well--not so much because I really wanted to, as because I just really didn't want to have to drive to the Red Lake TH and slog up that godawful trail a second time. Unfortunately thunderstorms kept me from those other two objectives, so I'll either have to give up on the SPS List (probably the smart idea) or go back another time. The only benefit was that, as a result, I finished the hike earlier than perhaps any other outing all summer (excluding warm-up days, at least).

Most amusing moment of the day was the realisation that the use trail from Red Lake up to the moraine below the Split-Prater saddle was actually a better trail than the Red Lake trail. :-)